Who I Am, Where I Stand, And What I’m Trying To Do Here

Every so often I like to write an article describing exactly what I’m about in the interests of transparency, and for the benefit of any new followers who aren’t quite sure what they’re looking at here. It’s a good exercise for me because it allows me to clarify for myself exactly why I got into this gig and what specifically I’m trying to get out of it, and it lays all my intentions on the table so readers can decide if I’m their cup of tea or not.

Brief bio: I am Australian, lived in Melbourne nearly all of my life, two kids, twice married and once divorced. I got a journalism degree in 2003 but figured out long before completing the course that the media deck is stacked so far against truth that I wouldn’t be able to do the kind of work I wanted to do, so I did some environmental activism while paying the bills with corporate work. I had a bunch of transformative personal experiences during that time period, then in 2016 I got a job at a self-publishing news outlet where I quickly gained an audience for my opinion articles about the Bernie Sanders movement (which arose from a commentary void I’d noticed needed filling while I was participating in Bernie Facebook groups). In 2017 I got a Patreon account and became a fully crowd-funded writer who is answerable to no one, a privileged position I exploit to its fullest in saying things I think need to be said regardless of the taboos against saying them.

And it’s been a weird, awkward, surprising, deeply satisfying, profoundly educational, and sometimes downright terrifying ride. I went very quickly from a lady posting the occasional bit of social commentary for a few hundred Facebook friends to a prolific political blogger read by many thousands daily who everyone seems to have a pretty strong opinion about, and I had to learn how to do the job on the fly while in full public view. The sudden influx of public attention has been really intense and scary at times, but with the help of a few healing practices and a very supportive husband I’ve managed to keep cranking out material and learning every day. A few months ago I slipped into a groove where I really feel like I have a lucid general understanding of the forces at play within this world, and I believe my work has increased in quality since that time.

The material I publish all arises from an ongoing conversation I’m continually engaged in with my soulmate Tim Foley, who I married in 2016. We both care deeply about the plight of humanity, and we spend every day sharing insights and information with each other about what’s going on in the world. I’ve seen a lot of weird conspiracy theories (mostly involving rubles) about how I suddenly burst onto the scene as a widely-read commentator seemingly out of nowhere, but the simple explanation is that I met someone whose love and cherishing has supercharged me and given me the self-confidence I needed to stand tall and shine bright in a world full of critics and misogyny. We’re joined at the hip, and a big part of the reason I’ve been able to maintain a consistent level of day-to-day quality is because my work is the product of two minds, not one.

Twelve Tips For Making Sense Of The World

"Here are a few tips I’ve learned which have given me a lot of clarity in seeing through the haze of spin and confusion."https://t.co/4A8NvcKzXc

My goal here in this little slot of digital real estate is to do every little thing I can to help save the world. Humanity appears to be hurtling toward extinction by way of climate destruction or nuclear annihilation, both of which are movements held in place by a transnational alliance of plutocrats and secretive government agencies. This unelected power establishment (which is sometimes referred to as the deep state, a term I now avoid since Republican partisans have distorted its meaning) seems to be motivated not by any ideology, nor by any loyalty to any particular nation or government, but by sheer hunger for limitless power. I place emphasis on the United States, because that’s where the largest amount of power appears to be centralized.

In a system where money both (A) translates directly to political power and (B) comes most abundantly to whoever is sufficiently cold and unfeeling to do whatever it takes in order to become immensely wealthy, we naturally find ourselves in a world ruled by sociopaths. These plutocratic rulers use their political influence to amass more power/money for themselves and create a system that is more and more favorable to the immensely wealthy, and they buy up media outlets to manufacture public support for that system. This ongoing propaganda campaign is what I see as the key weakness in the armor of their machine, and it’s the point I spend my energy attacking here.

Whoever controls the narrative controls the world. Understand this key point and you’ll understand why plutocrat-controlled media outlets are constantly smearing Julian Assange, why they never fail to fall in line to support a US-led military agenda, why they pay massive amounts of attention to some political candidates while completely ignoring others, and why they put so much energy into keeping everyone arguing over the details of how the status quo should be maintained instead of debating whether it should exist at all. The unelected power establishment uses its control over politics and media to determine what the public believes about what’s going on in their world in order to keep them from rebelling against a status quo which does not serve them; without the ability to effectively propagandize the masses in this way, they cannot rule. I therefore concentrate most of my energy here in attacking that propaganda machine and weakening the unearned trust that the public has placed in the mass media.

Society Is Made Of Narrative. Realizing This Is Awakening From The Matrix.

Ideologically, I am best described as a socialist. I believe if our species is to survive it will necessarily be without the planet-raping rat race of capitalism which keeps everyone stepping on each other’s heads, toiling to make more stuff for more people to consume regardless of whether that stuff helps the sum total or hurts it. I do not believe in the Magical Free Market Fairy that devout capitalists assure me has the beneficent wisdom to solve any problem, and in fact I see no evidence that the desire for money has any kind of wisdom at all, let alone the kind needed to overcome the immense challenges that our species faces currently. We are not going to spend, consume and toil our way out of ecocide or geopolitical battles for global dominance. If humanity still exists in the future on the other side of the immense crises on our horizon, it exists because we found an unselfish and compassionate way to collaborate together for the common good. A new world will need new ideas, but right now the closest thing to an ideological description of what a movement in that direction might look like is socialism.

Yet my writings are mostly non-ideological. This is because the enemy I am trying to attack is itself non-ideological; the agenda to thoroughly dominate and control as many human beings as possible is no more an ideology than a street mugging is. The unelected power establishment will promote the narratives of any ideology to any sector of the population in order to advance its agendas, including capitalism, socialism, white supremacy, Zionism, Christian or Islamic fundamentalism, conservatism or progressivism. I look forward to a future where it makes sense to spend time fighting over who has the best ideology, but in an environment that is dominated by an enemy which only sees ideologies as useful tools of narrative control it makes most sense to just directly attack the narrative manipulation itself.

You won’t therefore see many articles from me about the virtues of socialism, while you’ll see many about mass media propaganda and large-scale power dynamics. My goal is to help kill public trust in the empire which uses narrative control to maintain itself so that people can awaken from the lies and shrug off the mechanisms of manipulation like a heavy coat on a warm day, then help move humanity into a healthy direction in the new world once that is accomplished.

I do not believe humanity will be able to wake up from the propaganda narrative matrix and create a healthy world without a massive shift in the way we think and perceive. While most tend to look at what is commonly called spiritual enlightenment as an esoteric religious concept, or at most a lofty personal aspiration, I see it as a powerful yet mundane agent of social metamorphosis with far-reaching political consequences. The fact that it is possible for human beings to radically shift their relationship with thought means that it is possible for us to collectively transcend our current fear-based, easily manipulated relationship with the world and evolve into something unprecedented together. Our unprecedented ability to network and share information already in and of itself represents a drastic change in the way humans relate cognitively with the world, and there are reasons to believe a collective awakening could already be unfolding for us. Simply the fact that enlightenment is a potential that human beings have, combined with the fact that we have pressed ourselves into evolve-or-die time, indicates such a collective transcendence is a very real possibility.

I spend time writing about insights into that possibility for this reason. Some people enjoy my thoughts on the evolution of human consciousness, others aren’t so interested, but it’s often the most honest and direct way I can think of to push toward the escape from the oppression machine. On a collective basis it likely holds the key to our avoiding extinction and creating a beautiful world, and on an individual basis waking up from believed mental narrative gives one a lot of clarity for attacking the machine and makes one impossible to effectively propagandize. Revolution is in many ways an inside job, and doing the necessary inner work to snap ourselves out of our habitual identification with thought is a great way to turn oneself into a very inconvenient weapon against the empire.

And that’s mainly all you’ll ever see me doing with this platform these days: using essays, stories and poems to try and tear down the lie factory from as many angles as possible so that humanity can come to see things with clear eyes. I know I’m just one person and can only make so much difference, but I need to be able to tell my kids I did everything I could to help create a healthy world for them. I think I can honestly say I’m doing that, and I’m getting better at it every day.

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Latest comments

Those who reference Jesus are spot on. . The people of his time faced essentially the same anti-social mentality that is inherent in neoliberalism. . Instead of atomizing people via capitalism, the establishment in Jesus’ time atomized with God’s favor. Those who were sick, poor, crippled, criminal, etc were said to be in disfavor with God. To try to help people in need risked angering God. “Socialism” was anathama – only your relation to God counted and that relationship was mediated by the establishment. . So it’s interesting how those that make the connection to Jesus get challenged. See below under my previous comment for an example.

Cameron Freeman/December 5, 2018

Humanity is not hurtling toward extinction by way of climate destruction or nuclear annihilation, but the FEAR of both these possibilities is being held in place by a transnational alliance of plutocrats and secretive government agencies.

Orlando J. Valerino/December 4, 2018

“The unelected power establishment will promote the narratives of any ideology to any sector of the population in order to advance its agendas, including capitalism, socialism, white supremacy, Zionism, Christian or Islamic fundamentalism, conservatism or progressivism.”-C.Johnstone

You are partially correct in this, for there is an overarching ideology and this ideology is being pushed on the masses covertly and overtly and that is the ideology of selfishness. The belief that only serving our personal self interest is what will save humanity. It tries to destroy empathy. Note the rise of the selfie and other behaviors of self promotion. Trump is a distillation of this ideology.

Orlando J. Valerino/December 4, 2018

Furthermore, it also important to note that the power structure of the Anglo-Zionist empire of the west is based on the ideology of ‘white supremacy’. Colonization is the physical embodiment of this ideology. White europeans believing it is their ‘god given right’ to take already occupied lands. You must first understand this mentality in order to defeat it.

Eggsforbreakfast/December 4, 2018

Okay – but you can’t include the general public in that or you have completely missed the point. It is the people controlling the West who think it is their God given right to invade. It wouldn’t matter what we ordinary white people think. I don’t go through my life supporting invasions. In fact it is the ordinary (white) people who often are the ones who challenge bad behaviour in their leaders. The people who profited from colonialism were not the masses but the same people who control things today. Where do you think they got their immense wealth?

Orlando J. Valerino/December 4, 2018

Well it was that ‘ordinary white people thought that it was there right to invade. Colonization doesn’t happen without colonizers. The illegal Israeli settlements are no different than the ‘pioneers’/’settlers’ ones throughout the history of the U.S.

Some would say the real war is the war of the “global North vs the global south”. Some call it the ‘resource curse’. It all starts with colonization. The US onced called this genocidal, enslavement policy Manifest Destiny it has just changed names.

One of the main founding laws of the state of Israel is the “law of return” yet palestinians can’t use this law to gain back their lands. There is a reason why ethiopian jews are forced contraception in order to enter the country.

Racism is a phenotypic bias inculcated into western culture and has slid into other cultures of the world through western propaganda. The whitening of Egyptians in movies is a classic example. Skin whiteners are popular in some African nations. Along with this phenotypic bias comes associated characteristics that inform overall perceptions of other people.

inforebelscum/December 4, 2018

Orlando, predatory behavior is no where near exclusive to Whites. Whites are just able to do it on a larger scale because we have the ability to create/destroy on a larger scale than other races. FTR I am not defending the evil acts of anyone. I am defending truth against anti-White propaganda.

inforebelscum/December 4, 2018

Orlando J. Valerino/December 4, 2018

I am talking about what has created our modern world. Sure other humans have conducted wars and created empires. The current one of the Anglo-Zionist west is base on the ideology of white supremacy. If you want to compare the the tribal skirmishes of pre literate societies on par to dropping nuclear bombs on civilians, then you have a lot to learn about how our modern world functions.

inforebelscum/December 6, 2018

Orlando, we are discussing the “heart of darkness” here. Suggesting that Whites have a higher blood lust than POC because Whites are more efficient at war is akin to saying Whites require more water than POC because Whites can provide clean drinking water more efficiently than POC.

“If you want to compare the tribal skirmishes of pre literate societies on par to dropping nuclear bombs on civilians, then you have a lot to learn about how our modern world functions.”

They most certainly are comparable because they are the exact same thing: humans fighting and conquering each other over resources. Nothing is new under the sun. The only thing that changes is advancements in technology. Or do you think each tribe in the past would not have used their best technology to defeat their enemies? Do you think the Hutus would not drop a nuke on Tutus if the Hutus’ had such technology? The Cherokee v Apache, the Chinese v Japanese, Mayans v Everyone on the NA continent, etc. And vice versa. Cain used a rock while the modern world uses bullets. Same heart set just a different date on the calendar. Whites are a very small percentage of the human population so it only stands to reason that worldwide coveted resources would be overwhelmingly in the hands of POC. And Whites ain’t the only ones doing the coveting either. Or do you really think Whitey would not be going after them if they were owned by other Whites? Keep in mind that past White on White wars have devastated the White race. Clearly the zionists are looking for a war with Russia. And the last time I checked that frozen land was inhabited with some pretty pasty crackas. It is not about White supremacy although it is about jewish supremacy. Please don’t get me wrong. I do not support any wars and think mankind needs to evolve towards the goal of non-violence. I am only trying to clarify the reality.

Vanusha/December 4, 2018

Spot on. There is a big tradition in humanity promoting selfishness, Machiavellian behavior and various forms of Social Darwinism. It is not something “modern”, it is not specific to fascism or other ideology. It is huge and it has many faces. Smearing conscience as a weakness, promoting “money is always right”, smearing Truth as a “prejudice”, non existent or a mere “opinion” that can be endlessly manipulated, using whatever ideology, culture or ideas for camouflage and a weapon, smearing love, bonding and caring as unnecessary “burden”. It is in philosophy and culture, history and art. I think that to effectively counter this means we save ourselves. We never managed to do it effectively and to go beyond the “master slave morality”. If we manage to do it now – because we don’t really have a choice, you know – it might prove to be the first real transformation of humanity as Caitlin hopes. Seeing the psychopaths for what they are is not easy task. It requires countering your own countless lies, fears and uncertainties.

Cameron Freeman/December 5, 2018

Caitlin’s article today coincides with the appearance of a rarity in US media, a criticism of DOD (Depatment of Defense, or “Pentagon”) policies and practices by the NYTimes’ Editorial Board. Much of the opinion appears actually intended to soften criticisms of such policies and practices that others are making, but the title of the opinion, ” The Pentagon Doesn’t Know Where Its Money Goes,” and first sentence speak volumes—that sentence reading ” After decades of ducking the legal requirement that it undergo a thorough financial audit, the Pentagon finally opened up its books to 1,200 outside accountants and analysts.” Lest anyone think the DOD is admitting it is subject to civilian-made law, we should recognize it is merely letting the public see the tip of an iceberg big enough to cause the collapse of the US economy and body politic altogether. Possibly a collapse can be averted, but we should not forget this line from Caitlin’s essay: ” In a system where money both (A) translates directly to political power and (B) comes most abundantly to whoever is sufficiently cold and unfeeling to do whatever it takes in order to become immensely wealthy, we naturally find ourselves in a world ruled by sociopaths.”

JustTruth/December 3, 2018

Vanusha/December 3, 2018

I see a lot of voices for whom socialism is anathema and criticizing capitalism (in its “pure” form) means that you discredit yourself. “To learn who rules over you, simply find out who you are not allowed to criticize” 😉 I think this says a lot … not only about Israel.

Eggsforbreakfast/December 4, 2018

Yes – there is a lot in that. There are a couple of elephants in the room that people are still afraid to mention. Only when we can speak openly about all our opressors can we hope to move forward. Simply blaming white people just doesn’t cut it.

Tear down the lie factory! . I think of Caitlin’s “socialism” as primarily spiritual. Economic socialism follows from that. Where cooperation trumps competition. Where the commons is prized. Where people actually have a stake in a system that works for them and democracy is actually democratic. . Funny how no one complains that religion is “socialist” despite that that religious-inspired volunteers do ‘good works’ that help others for little or nothing. No, such grass-roots “socialism” is accepted as a ‘safety net’ for the corrupt capitalist establishment. Why can’t that be reversed? If banks and other ‘natural monopolies’ were run like utilities, oligarchs were not allowed free reign, people were educated to be people and not corporate machines, and the war machine was neutered, we would have grass-roots capitalist activities supporting a socialized infrastructure instead.

p.brooksmcginnis/December 3, 2018

Hi Jackrabbit; Religion on a personal level is not socialistic; instead it is very, very, very individualistic and its goal is Pure Love & Enlightenment and a Celebration of Life. War has no place in god’s universe. War is not of god, or for god, or about god.

What we are seeing dominating the world today is not a god movement; but a WAR movement. The folks promoting these unending criminal, evil wars are not even slightly god like and in fact they are Pure Evil.

inforebelscum/December 4, 2018

P, “War is not of god, or for god, or about god.” Which god are you referring to? If it is the Abrahamic god then you would be wrong because that sick fuck loves him some slaughter. Especially when it is done in his name and for the good of his “chosen people”.

inforebelscum/December 4, 2018

Obviously, I didn’t attribute that quote to Jesus. As I recall, he said things like “What you do to the least of thee, you do unto me.” In other words, we are all brothers and sisters, and need to cooperate and take care of each other. Pretty radical, then and now.

inforebelscum/December 9, 2018

John Bestevaar/December 6, 2018

All wealthy oligarchs control large corporations. Corporations are just a lawful means of taking the profits of the employees to the purses of the rich. So Corporations Laws are a good way to reign in the power of the rich so that the ordinary folks get a chance to make something for themselves. Repeal the law that says that anything you create as an employee is automatically the property of the employer.

Dwyer Worrell Peri/December 3, 2018

Caitlin rocks! I love the way she has no filters about the unelected power structure that manipulates humanity into collectivist statist warfare and delusional panic via mass media and economic manipulation.

I do wish she’d stop tripping long enough to learn a little arithmetic so she’ stop thinking that there’s something called a “free market fairy” when what there really is, is math: the math which allows her to be in her self-described extremely privileged position of being supported by a Patreon account.

I wish she’d read Hayek and learn what the catallaxy of the Higher Order really means; then perhaps she’d see that, yes, there is a global transformation of consciousness happening right now, and voluntary, visionary, and very capitalist interactions are an integral part of it.

Until that point, she’s headed down the Animal Farm path of revolution. I dread the day I wake up to find her acid-sharp wit in the service of the new “revolutionary establishment.”

inforebelscum/December 3, 2018

Caitlin, I really appreciate it when writers such as yourself and Chuck Baldwin and others do an “annual report”. I like to know where one stands. Kudos.

But now let us unpack what you stand for.

“I do not believe in the Magical Free Market Fairy that devout capitalists assure me has the beneficent wisdom to solve any problem…”

The market is either controlled or it is free. Therefore I think an honest reading of what you believe is that you do believe in a Magical Planned-by-Committee Market Fairy “..that devout [socialists] assure [us] that has the beneficent wisdom to solve any problem…” So then who are these know-it-all fairies on this oh-so-much-wiser-than-everyone-else committee? Where do these magnificent fairies come from? Demigod land? Why are you against economic “democracy”? If people are not capable enough to manage their own economic choices then how can these same people be capable enough to vote on how to manage others’ economic choices? Why are you against letting individuals make their own choices the same as for abortion?

“Yet my writings are mostly non-ideological. This is because the enemy I am trying to attack is itself non-ideological; the agenda to thoroughly dominate and control as many human beings as possible…”

This is a contradiction. The enemy’s agenda is indeed ideological as you yourself say – “…the agenda to thoroughly dominate and control as many human beings as possible…” So then the question is What is the most effective way for the enemy to accomplish this ideologically driven agenda? Answer: Government. And which form of government best gives the enemy the ability to “…dominate and control as many human beings as possible…”? Answer: Collectivism. Socialism/communism/fascism/globalism are all based on the same evil principle i.e. the individual is to be subservient to the collective State. So any support for any of these ideologies is to support the very same enemy goals. How can one defeat an enemy while at the same time call for making that very same enemy even more powerful against oneself?! How does one fight an enemy if one does not even understand who exactly is the enemy?! Power is the enemy. Period. And government is Power. Period. And Power is violence. Period. It is not any more complicated than that.

This is why I will proudly fight alongside you to defeat the US empire and wars. But this is also why I will also proudly – yet with more vigor – fight against you after the “revolution”. I will not tolerate having one form of evil government being replaced with an even more evil government. This is where I stand.

Also, I ask again if you know the difference between capitalism and crony “capitalism”/corporatism? The latter requires government to implement them while the former does not. Huge difference.

not steve/December 3, 2018

“Crony capitalism “ is the only kind that ever exists. (We used to call capitalists “kings” and “lords”. Now, the power is less obvious.). And it’s only ever “helped” some of its domestic population by invading and stealing from another. Whereas socialism has helped local literacy and health despite being immediately attacked via finance, terror, or frontal assault by capitalists.

Money — claims on productive assets or its output — is power. Wealthy interests have dictated national policies 99% of the time. They also wrote most of the “history” and “news” you read about “socialism” or any other threat to their power.

inforebelscum/December 4, 2018

Not, ‘”And it’s only ever ‘helped’ some of its domestic population by invading and stealing from another.”

Not unlike tribes around the world throughout history. Conquest and taking from each other is the history of humanity. Sadly.

“Whereas socialism has helped local literacy and health…”

Where when how? Did the teachers and health workers do it for free or did they get paid with money? What currency and at what compensation?

“Money — claims on productive assets or its output — is power. Wealthy interests have dictated national policies 99% of the time.”

Thus also has been the history of humanity. Socialism will not change that. Socialism is simply replacing one set of narcissistic control freak psychos with power with another set of narcissistic control freak psychos with power. Strike that. Socialism will be worse because one cannot say “No.” to government whereas one can say “No.” to companies (unless those companies have bought themselves some government e.g. Big Pharma).

Outside of a flea market in a church parking lot, maybe, there is no such thing as a ‘free market’. Markets as we know them require all sorts of regulation just to determine who owns what and what they are allowed to do with it. Beyond that, powerful people and organizations inevitably influence and sometimes control apparently un- or lightly regulated trading. I could rant on, but I am confident that anyone who looks into the situation will discover the truth.

The class organization of capitalism does not require markets but it does require a government, a Gewaltmonopol, a general institution of legitimated original coercion, to maintain the division between those who have and those who have not.

inforebelscum/December 4, 2018

Anarcissie, agreed that a free market does not currently exist. And that is precisely the problem. Individual freedom is the only antidote to power. And make no mistake about it socialism is based on power (violence) the same as corporatism. The only real difference between both systems is that socialism directs its violence at its own alleged customers (“The” people) while corporatism needs to attract its customers from individuals.

“The class organization of capitalism does not require markets but it does require a government… a general institution of legitimated original coercion, to maintain the division between those who have and those who have not.”

It is not capitalism it is corporatism. Socialism also produces classes, especially the political class. So meet the new institution of legitimated original coercion. Same as the old institution of legitimated original coercion.

Calgacus/December 4, 2018

INFOREBELSCUM:Also, I ask again if you know the difference between capitalism and crony “capitalism”/corporatism? The latter requires government to implement them while the former does not. Huge difference.

Umm, no.

All forms of capitalism requires government. You can have government without capitalism, “free” markets etc, but you cannot have capitalism without (rather strong) governments. Nobody has ever seen this magical capitalism floating in mid air because it is logically, not merely empirically impossible.

Proof: Markets require money and as Abba Lerner said, Money is a creature of the state. QED There can be no economy, no society without control and planning. Markets by their very nature must have control. Markets are a side effect of the “control”, the “intervention” in the society they are embedded in. The control, the intervention, the society comes first; then the market may or may not happen. Things don’t just randomly happen by magical spontaneous generation.

What laissez-faire, Austrian, free marketers Ayn Randists do is just CALL the kind of planning and control and government and “intervention” they like “not planning”, “not government”, not “intervention”. Like almost all bad theories, it all turns on simply not speaking plain English, in using or making taboo common, universal words and concepts and arguments. In practice, though I agree, not in the magical, self-contradictory theory, the effect of this magical-thinking capitalism turns out to be welfare for the rich.

inforebelscum/December 4, 2018

Calgacus, “All forms of capitalism requires government. You can have government without capitalism, ‘free’ markets etc, but you cannot have capitalism without (rather strong) governments.”

“Markets require money and…Money is a creature of the state.”

Actually government requires money. And where does government get its money from? Taxes. Where do taxes come from? Productive people. People have been and still can be productive without government aka violence. The state no longer coins its own money, it is created out of thin air by private banksters. So then who controls who? Clearly it is the private banksters who control government not the other way around. And again, government is violence and that violence is what the banksters sic on the public to forcibly accept the Feds’ notes as the only currency. Therefore money is the creature of private banks not the state. That free markets do not exist today is not evidence that they are “… logically, not merely empirically impossible” since they have existed before and can exist again when planned economies collapse.

“What laissez-faire, Austrian, free marketers Ayn Randists do is just CALL the kind of planning and control and government and “intervention” they like ‘not planning’, ‘not government’, ‘not intervention.'”

An example please.

What is “magical-thinking” is the belief that collectivist economies – economies based on force – will produce better goods and services than free economies. Who is a better worker – a slave or a free man working to improve him and his family’s lot? Which is more conducive for productivity – the stick or the carrot?

“…capitalism turns out to be welfare for the rich.”

Umm, no. Real free market capitalism does no such thing. But crony capitalism/corporatism does (hence the destinction “crony”) . So too any other form of forced collectivism. Capitalism does not provide welfare to either the rich or the poor. It is government (violence) that provides welfare not the private market.

Calgacus/December 5, 2018

Actually government requires money. Nope. People require money, so they can pay taxes to the government with it.And where does government get its money from? Taxes. Umm, no. Governments get their money the old-fashioned way. They print it.

The state no longer coins its own money, it is created out of thin air by private banksters.

Quite false. It couldn’t work that way and it doesn’t work that way. There is a lot of BS – bank money, bonds – real but pointless activities along with BS on top of BS loony theories about the Fed being all-powerful and whatever. They just disguise the essential truth. Governments print/spend their money into existence. Taxes destroy money. (There is private sector money & finance, but that is the tail, not the dog.)

Where do taxes come from? Productive people.

No. Productive people that money to pay taxes with comes from are called “counterfeiters”. Governments only accept the money they print for taxation, not the money that the productive counterfeiter people print.

That’s why it is so important to have people believe nonsensical theories about money that deny the evidence in front of their faces since they were five years old. Correct, obvious, incredibly simple monetary theory shows that capitalism without government is logically impossible. Believe nonsense about money and then one can swallow the free market capitalist crap – which in practice is used to justify a great deal of old-fashioned ultra-violence.

Again, markets require money. Whatever the government does, and which only the government can do to secure a market economy, a monetary economy is “intervention”. Again free marketeers cannot see it as “intervention”. In practice the two of the biggest are spending and taxing. Favored forms of welfare for the rich are things like a gold standard and government bonds. As well as taxing the poor more than the rich, and one of the most important and least understood- setting up a system of property that protects the most fanciful “property” of the rich with extreme violence, while the property of the poor – their labor, their rights to compensation like pensions – above all- is not even recognized as property.

That free markets do not exist today is not evidence that they are “… logically, not merely empirically impossible” since they have existed before

Again, no. “Free markets” the way the free marketers imagine didn’t exist, never existed. There are NO historical examples. Because again, they are logically impossible.

Orlando J. Valerino/December 5, 2018

Money is a means of conducting transactions that is all. Seashells can be used as money.

Capitalism is just a new name for feudalism. The engine of capitalism is labor. The cheapest labor possible known as slavery is what drive modern economics which will all be replaced by robots thus the need for population control.

inforebelscum/December 9, 2018

Calagus, “Actually government requires money. Nope. People require money, so they can pay taxes to the government with it.”

You just contradicted yourself. What government does not run on money? Now that is a logical impossibility.

“Quite false. It couldn’t work that way and it doesn’t work that way. ”

Are you saying the US government creates its own money not borrows it from the private Federal Reserve?! If you are then you are beyond wrong.

“There are NO historical examples. Because again, they are logically impossible.”

So you are arguing that free trade never existed and that it is impossible for it to exist? Well, the Amish practice free trade with each other. Bartering is free trade and has been practiced worldwide for centuries. So please lay out exactly how it is “logically impossible” for individuals to trade freely among themselves? That is what a free market is: individuals deciding for themselves who and what they will trade with. Individuals can and should act without busybodies – violent busy bodies (the State) interfering. Please explain exactly how this is not possible.

Orlando J. Valerino/December 5, 2018

You do have alot to learn. You do realize that the very existence of ‘a government’ is a form of socialism right? The battle is about individual rights/sovereignty and social obligation to the overall society one finds themselves in. The anarcho-capitalist disregards any obligation to the overall collective(humanity). The anarcho-socialist says these obligations matter.

inforebelscum/December 9, 2018

Orlando, every form of government is based on violence. The only difference is that the more intrusive the government the more violent it becomes. What specific “obligations” do you think one owes the collective? The only obligation an individual owes to others is to respect the others’ Natural Law Rights the same as one expects others to respect theirs. The left holds that the collective is more important than the individual. And that is worse, much, much worse.

Orlando J. Valerino/December 9, 2018

No man is an island- John Donne. No man is an island entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main; if a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as any manner of thy friends or of thine own were; any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind. And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.

Your anarcho-capitalist nonsense does not work in the real world because ‘no man is an island.’

inforebelscum/December 10, 2018

Orlando, fully agreed that no man is an island. This is true. But it is also even “more truer” that no man has any authority to rule another man. That is the other truth that the Statists try to suppress and overturn, especially the leftie Statists (redundant I know). One need not be an anarcho-capitalist to want to stop this assault on basic human Natural Law Rights (NLR).

So let me be clear. I am not an anarcho-capitalist. The only label that I apply to myself is NAPist (one who unwavering follows the Non Aggression Principle in all things). This, of course, by extension does make me a Volunteerist or Voluntaryist.

The question we are discussing here is ancient. How can/should human beings organize themselves? Statists – collectivists – must ignore the individual and individual rights in order to implement their agendas, thereby making their agendas evil. I want to stop this evil. Statists, both left and right but especially the left, want to organize humans into societies that deny human beings their basic NLR. That is what I am bitterly against. And that is why I am against any revolution that only replaces one set of assholes with power with another set of even bigger assholes with even more power which is exactly what the left is trying to do. Peace and stability, as close as humans can get to it in this life anyways, can only come through the recognition of and respect for the rights of the individual.

J/December 3, 2018

If humanity still exists in the future on the other side of the immense crises on our horizon, it exists because we found an unselfish and compassionate way to collaborate together for the common good.

inforebelscum/December 3, 2018

Brian/December 4, 2018

The confirmation bias is strong in the assumption that humans or humankind are fundamentally good. Unbiased evidence supporting this assumption is usually anecdotal or highly self referential. I can’t help but come to the conclusion that for the earth, fewer humans would be categorically better. Unfortunately, uttering such a self evident observation gets you branded as a nihilist.

I am so glad to read Caitlin’s work because it dares to criticize both self declared sides of the false political dichotomy. Individuals’ labels for capitalism and socialism are so divergent it’s almost a non-starter to use those labels.

inforebelscum/December 4, 2018

Brian, if humans are not fundamentally good then we are fundamentally bad. If that is the case then why save humanity at all? Or try to make things better? If humans are bad then killing people would be a good thing then right? Are you yourself a fundamentally bad human? Or are you the exception to your own rule? And there is a way for there to be fewer humans, at least one fewer. Would you be willing to lead by example?

Humans are both good and evil–some more of one, some more of the other. It is the age old struggle. Sadly, evil seems to be winning these days. That is not to say the dynamics can’t be turned around if enough people resist the manipulation and control of the greedy masters who would have us think we can be like them. Who would want to be?

inforebelscum/December 4, 2018

prolenomore/December 3, 2018

Hi Caitlin,

Thank you for sharing.

One thought rambling about this head and found as subtext in your insights is the meme that we have all become slaves to capitalism. In other words, capitalism no longer serves the needs of humanity. Rather humanity clearly serves the needs of capitalism.

As your thoughts and other musings demonstrate, capitalism is both killing the planet and also killing humanity. It – capitalism – is a mindless process that drives actions and behaviors antithetical to life for all but a fraction of humanity. Just in America, we see declining longevity rates in the supposed richest country of the world. Globally, planet earth – our collective home – has become ever more uninhabitable. Both of these outcomes can justifiably be traced back to nothing more than blind subservience to an economic idea.

It is time for a change. And the dialog we need is an honest exploration of alternatives with sober recognition than our enslavement and that of planet earth must end. And should we fail ourselves in this pursuit, we know that planet earth will act with impunity to end both capitalism and ourselves.

inforebelscum/December 3, 2018

Pro, the world is not run under capitalism. It is run under crony capitalism/corporatism/globalism. There is a big difference between them and one must know who exactly is the enemy. It is not free market capitalism. The enemy is government power.

Vanya/December 3, 2018

I’m right with you Caitlin. The only thing is, you missed the most urgent problem – Peak Oil, Peal Coal and Peak Gas, collectively known as Peak Fossils.

Industrial Civilisation needs energy to build everything and move everything, including the builders, and the energy production rate is going into a slow decline as oil fields get smaller, further from big markets, and of poorer quality, so need more energy to produce.

The Empire knows this, probably better than we do as it has friends in the energy industry. And what are they doing about it ? They are just trying to keep the economy going until everything burnable has been burned. No frackers have ever made a profit from fracking, and they have accumulated a total debt of $280 billion! The only reason anyone keeps lending them money is because the banks have been told to subsidise them, to avoid the imminent crash and economic implosion.

While it will mean we avoid the worst of the Climate Change problem, the crash is going to be VERY horrible. Many people are going to starve to death, maybe 90% of the world’s population. You can tell people about it, but they will refuse to believe thing are that bad.

We can’t get out of it by building solar panels and wind turbines because building stuff needs lots of extra energy, a GIGANTIC amount, to replace 100 years worth of fossil infrastructure and transport vehicles – the sunlight is free but the panels are not. Only the world’s 4 biggest economies make panels and they are able to compete.

On the positive side, the non-human lifeforms will heave a huge sigh of relief when the bulldozers and chainsaws fall silent.

inforebelscum/December 3, 2018

Dave, so the only choice for humanity is to go back to a hand-to-mouth existence or go instinct? I doubt that those human beings (mostly POC) currently living under a hand-to-mouth lifestyle will be willing to go along with such a plan. How exactly do you propose to change their minds?

Steve/December 3, 2018

Caitlin, I agree with all you said except socialism. That’s like 2 wolves and 1 lamb deciding what’s for dinner. People must be individually rewarded for their efforts and penalized for their sloth. Ayn Rand comes to mind. Providing services that are rewarded is the only way to progress effectively. Taking the fruit of others efforts results in a downward spiral. True capitalism-NOT the current crony capitalism has brought the people of the world tremendous well behind and pulled millions from poverty. Please re-examine your stance on socialism. It has never worked outside of small homogenous groups. Thanks.

Mihail/December 3, 2018

How do you keep the new capitalism from growing back into the present day monster? A friend said the “isms” keep the herd fenced in. We have to go beyond ism towards real freedom, no tax slavery, no collective ideological slavery. Our real problem is we know so little about freedom we have to reinvent it.

Mihail/December 3, 2018

Je How do you keep the new capitalism from growing back into the present day monster? A friend said the “isms” keep the herd fenced in. We have to go beyond ism towards real freedom, no tax slavery, no collective ideological slavery. Our real problem is we know so little about freedom we have to reinvent it.

Mihail/December 3, 2018

not steve/December 3, 2018

>> People must be individually rewarded for their efforts and penalized for their sloth. … Providing services that are rewarded is the only way to progress effectively. Taking the fruit of others efforts results in a downward spiral.

Capitalism fails your standards.

In capitalism, a tiny group are rewarded for everyone else’s effort. They then hand it on to their kids, who continue to live quite differently than everyone else. And the control these oligarchs exert over government has resulted in “a downward spiral”.

You can “flip” other oligarch rhetoric too. For instance, “[capitalism] fails because it eventuality runs out of other people’s money”. Once the oligarchs nudge all the debt slaves into fully maxing out their debt, there’s a reset. Or the people’s lives degrade like we see in the US. Or the oligarchs start a war against a different set of oligarchs hosted in another country. Remember “When goods don’t cross borders, [capitalist] armies do.”? That’s another phrase capitalists say without a hint of self-reflection. Capitalism facilitates imperial conquest. Instead of the imperial “tribute” being out in the open, it’s masked in “trade” and “finance”.

“Capitalism” is just another name for oligarchy. Without aggressive taxation on piles on wealth, money and power are concentrated in a few hands that then effectively control everything. It differs superficially, not practically, from kingdoms. Its therefore the predominant European and American experience for the past couple thousand years. It’s failed again and again and again. And history shows it regularly commits mass murder.

Socialism has pulled more people from poverty than oligarchy . The threat of socialism is the one threat that pulls oligarchs together and offer the peons a slightly better deal.

History shows it’s also hard to avoid, leading to someone writing a book called “the iron law of oligarchy”. I guess would-be oligarchs gain enough followers with tales of “freedom” and amassing fortunes of their own for presumably honest work.

inforebelscum/December 3, 2018

Not, I get your take but it falls short IMHO. First, what the left calls capitalism is not really capitalism. It is crony capitalism/corporatism (CC) which is not anything like free market capitalism. The question is where does CC get its original money from to begin with? Conversely, where will your envisioned collective society get its money from?

“‘Capitalism’ is just another name for oligarchy. Without aggressive taxation on piles on wealth, money and power are concentrated in a few hands that then effectively control everything.”

And how will a collective society differ? How will you prevent “some animals are more equal than others” from arising under a collectivist system the same as under non-collective system?

How does aggressive taxation stop power? Who pays these aggressive taxes more – oligarchs or Joe Sixpack? What will be the tax rate for everyone in a collective “equal” society? How will concentrating power into a few government hands so that bureaucrats will effectively be in control of everything not also result in people not having any control?

“Socialism has pulled more people from poverty than oligarchy.” Can you cite an example of where a society went from oligarchy to socialism which then lifted their people up from poverty? Why are not leftists using such a society as an example? Why are not boatloads of lefties paddling their way to said nation? The lefties could then wave to the people who are paddling their way in the opposite direction to non-socialized countries in the “evil” Western nations.

Steve/December 5, 2018

Look at all the people in the US who have started a business in their garage and by providing an excellent product everyone uses have made themselves rich- Bill Gates, Steve Jobs,Etc. They weren’t the monied class. They built a better mouse trap and we’re rewarded. Socialism, read history. 200 million in the 20th century murdered following Socialism. Russia-STALIN, China-mao, etc…think and read some history

Vanusha/December 3, 2018

Hi Steve, I can say a lot about the “altruistic egoism” of Ayn Rand from purely philosophical point of view, but here is not the place. People in ex- Soviet countries use to say “Communism is a supreme ideal, but human nature corrupts it”. It is just unbelievable for me to hear the same words from people that have all the information in the world (but IMHO don’t know how to handle it) as from people in ex Soviet Countries that had almost no information available. This is a long conversation, but let me address briefly a few of your points. “Providing services that are rewarded is the only way to progress effectively” – it depends. For example – free education, health care, infrastructure and other social services lower the cost of living and make labor in such places more competitive (as Michael Hudson explains). Moreover, from psychological point of view – when people have their basic needs met, they thrive, more easily risk, innovate and money might not be their supreme goal all the time. “Taking the fruit of others efforts results in a downward spiral” – I am not sure this is something specific to “socialism” or “communism”. Look, some time ago I tried to find information about “communism”. I thought I must read Marx to understand what is this. So, I read Marx. Marx provides almost zero information on “communism”, though he appears to understand quite well capitalism. Anyway, generally he sees communism as a “post scarcity economic order”, in other words – when capitalism produces so much goods that there is enough for everybody, we can provide some basic goods (services) for free for everybody. For example – currently I pay nothing for my Facebook, Google, Email account you see (weather they are evil or not)? I can listen to music free on youtube. My phone is a gift from the Mobile company, so it is free again. So, some of this is already happening (kind of perverse but anyway). As for individual responsibility – it should be present in any economic order I think. “Taking the fruit of others efforts .. ” – Ok, what does this mean? It can mean: “the evil state that takes the fruit of their own citizens’ labor” or “the evil corporation that takes the fruit of their employee’s labor in exchange for wages” or the “evil modern capitalist that exploits the Precariat” or “the lazy losers in the corporative shared irresponsibility that spend their life posting bullshit on facebook”? Communism/socialism is perceived in modern times as “unfair equality”. And nobody wants this – I saw a recent survey that shows that almost nobody wants equality. Universally people want fair inequality. The difficult thing is with “fair”. In totalitarian Soviet states people were not “equal” – this is why we hated the members of the party for example. You must know this from the Animal Farm – “All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others”. This is an example of unfair inequality. How about modern “elites” that pretend to defend “the rights of the people”. It is oxymoron. In other words – total bullshit. So, lets return to capitalism. The main problem with capitalism IMHO is “profit” – this is the thing that defines capitalism, “profit” rewards the “deserving” individuals. Lets imagine that capitalism is fair and not “crony” capitalism, for example – nobody cheats, steals, justice departments work, laws against monopoly work, everybody thinks it is better to have real achievements than to master impression management and climb the corporate ladder, etc. It is hard to imagine, but theoretically. Firstly as PCR points out – if capitalism counts all the costs – it is not profitable. See here: https://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2018/08/17/is-capitalism-killing-us/ Second: sooner or later capitalism will substitute humans for robots: they are cheaper and much more effective. Next – why do you need all those billions of needy humans? They are dispensable. You only need a few hi tech well paid people (I am a software engineer for example, so still hope for me) writing the AI. Third – profit doesn’t mean achievements, profit means “all means possible”. Profit means – success by itself. You might have achievements, but if I manage to lower the price – I get the profit. I think this corruption is not because of the corrupt human nature, it is part of the capitalist contradictions (as Marx noticed). Thank you.

inforebelscum/December 4, 2018

Vanusha, “…free education, health care, infrastructure and other social services…”

Are you telling me that teachers, health care professionals, construction workers and others all work for free?! And they all pay for the needed materials/tools/equipment/etc out of their own pockets?! They are either swell people or they are fools or they are slaves. Which one?

Lorraine Jarvi/December 3, 2018

Our ignorant minds are controlled by narratives but instead of leading people into the light you ‘try’ the narrative ‘socialism’. Thanks for tipping your hand. Your nothing but a dirty Marxist. God, get me out of here, click unsubscribe !

inforebelscum/December 3, 2018

If CJ is a serious Marxist she would be interested in abolishing the government. In theory, socialism would be a step in that direction. If you’re going to have capitalism, you have to have a class system, and if you’re going to have a class system, you have to have a government. The higher the class pyramid, the more government is necessary — hence the militarism, police-statism, and surveillance growing in the US.

Tom Hunsdale/December 3, 2018

Peter Mathyssen/December 3, 2018

Thank you for the update. I am so happy for you (and for us readers!) that you can do what you love, publish your thoughts in to-the-point analysis and ‘rants’. You so often hit the nail on the head, hard. Keep it going.

elkojohn/December 3, 2018

Caitlin and Abby Martin are passionate about truth and justice – the humanitarian way. Caitlin’s essays are well thought out and written with true grit. Perhaps civilization will dodge the thermo-nuclear war bullet, and maybe even (by some miracle) the climate change bullet, but how, pray tell, will we deal with the population growth of our species and all that will result from over-population sometime in the future?

Elizabeth Ecks/December 3, 2018

Proven way to reduce birth rates = lift women out of poverty and educate them. Stop men in some societies treating women like breeding sows/brood mares. Educate women and birth rates plummet. Its been proven. Some in our world choose not to breed for the sake of the planet. If we shared resources properly all could eat and life on the planet would be sustainable

Vanya/December 3, 2018

inforebelscum/December 3, 2018

Elizabeth, “Proven way to reduce birth rates = lift women out of poverty and educate them. Stop men in some societies treating women like breeding sows/brood mares”

It is only proven in White Western Cultures. And how exactly do you stop men in certain societies from treating women like shit? Is this notion not yet more proof that not all societies/people are equal?

inforebelscum/December 3, 2018

David Allen/December 3, 2018

Caitlin, I very much appreciate the thought provoking insights you share on a regular basis. I think I understand your lack of confidence in ‘capitalism’. I tend to think of it, if not corrupted by governmental intervention, as the ‘free market’. Perhaps then your lack of confidence would be better placed on human nature. In any system of social organization, it seems to me the question is: ‘Who will decide?’ How do we determine who will decide when there is disagreement over use of scarce resources or anything else? Cheers

Geo/December 3, 2018

That’s exactly what she wrote if you had bothered to read beyond the scary “socialism” word. Did you read far enough to get to the part about ideologies being used to protect power? Stop clinging to your mythical form of a free market unfettered by human folly and open yourself to the information and ideas provided here.

inforebelscum/December 3, 2018

Geo, if a free market is not unfettered by human folly then how exactly will a controlled and unfree market – i.e. economy by committee – not also be unfettered by human folly? Or will this committee be run by gods?

Brian/December 4, 2018

Taking away those two loaded terms, I think you come down to a balance between the importance of ownership vs. equality. Somehow it seems like the people who own lots of stuff have convinced us that ownership is the keystone value of society and is less important than equality.

inforebelscum/December 4, 2018

Horace T Bone/December 3, 2018

Stephen Sadd/December 3, 2018

“Society Is Made Of Narrative. Realizing This Is Awakening From The Matrix”

Hit the nail on the head Caitlin! & Thank you for your openness, and must say, what a fresh breath of air you are, it does get the heart pounding and the blood pumping, does it not? Nothing can beat the truth!

If you don't remember thinking much about Russia prior to the 2016, and now you think about it a lot more, that's your first clue that you've been propagandized. It's the same country it was in 2015. The threat it poses hasn't changed, only the narrative has.

"Whenever America celebrates Martin Luther King Jr. Day we should remind ourselves that it is a known, undisputed fact that the Federal Bureau of Investigation engineered a psyop to manipulate one of the world’s greatest minds into committing suicide." #MLKDay2019 #MLKDay

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"NewsGuard is led by some of the most virulently pro-imperialist individuals in America and its agenda to shore up narrative control for the ruling power establishment is clear, writes Caitlin Johnstone."

NewsGuard is led by some of the most virulently pro-imperialist individuals in America and its agenda to shore up narrative control for the ruling power establishment is clear, writes Caitlin Johnstone. By Caitlin Johnstone CaitlinJohnstone.com The frenzied, hysterical Russia narrative being prom ... See more

Excerpt from "Fight The Establishment’s Narratives By Getting Clear On Your Own":

Anti-establishment movements are a mess. Whether they’re left-wing or right-wing, whether they’re statist or anarchist, whether they’re organized or decentralized, whether they place emphasis on official or unofficial narratives, any circle of people who are interested in opposing the status quo on a deep, meaningful level almost invariably find themselves significantly bogged down by confusion, paranoia, infighting, and misdirected use of energy.

Every day, for example, I get people in my inbox and social media notifications telling me I shouldn’t quote or share anything from this or that lefty journalist or anti-establishment figure because they’ve said something “problematic” at some point or have some kind of association with some aspect of the establishment. Rather than simply using narrative-disrupting tools wherever they come from to fight the establishment narrative control machine, I’m encouraged to isolate myself to the extremely narrow spectrum of voices which agree with my exact worldview perfectly. This kind of paranoid, self-cannibalizing mentality is rife throughout most anti-establishment circles.

This happens for a number of reasons, including the fact that the ruling power establishment will infiltrate dissident movements that it perceives as a threat with the intent of sowing confusion and division. But the underlying reason anti-establishment circles so often find themselves getting crushed by their own weight is ultimately because life itself is confusing and difficult to understand.

Hardly anyone holds a lucid and steady awareness of just how much of society is comprised of mental narrative. Most people live their lives under the unquestioned assumption that when they are moving around in the world, speaking, acting, forming opinions, having ideas etc, they are interacting with something that resembles objective reality. The truth of the matter is that most of the things which draw people’s attention in their day-to-day experience, whether it’s names, titles, news stories, political parties, economics, history, philosophy, religion or what have you, consist entirely of mental noises firing off inside human skulls.

Excerpt from "Fight The Establishment’s Narratives By Getting Clear On Your Own":

You might think it’s a big jump to go from chatting about the sociopolitical dynamics within dissident movements to making vaguely Buddhist-sounding observations about human thought, but it’s really not. The reason our species is in a mess right now, and thus the reason movements exist which seek to change the status quo, is because so much of life is dictated entirely by made-up mental narratives which can be easily controlled by the powerful, and hardly anyone fully grasps this. If they did, the revolution against the establishment would very smoothly and quickly succeed.

Scientific research has found that astronauts suffer problems with coordination, perception and cognition when they are unable to determine which way is up in space. There is no “up” or “down” when you’re outside the gravitational pull that our bodies are adapted to, so its absence sends our whole system out of whack. Navigating a society that is made of mental narrative is very much the same; if you don’t know which way’s up, you’ll get lost and confused. Before you can see the narrative matrix clearly, you might be aware that some narratives serve power and swat at them while you’re spinning through space, but you won’t have any solid ground on which to orient yourself for the purpose of forming a clear path forward toward a healthy and harmonious world.

Your first and foremost task as a revolutionary, therefore, is to find solid ground on which to plant your feet while operating within a swirling sea of narratives and counter-narratives. Without this you’ll find yourself expending energy on ineffectual agendas, chasing shadows, attacking friends and advancing the interests of the enemy as you stumble around trying to fight a threat you can’t even see clearly. You’ve got to figure out for yourself which way’s up.